Hey Hey Gray Gray it's your Birthday

These pictures are in backwards order, but oh well. Gray turned 2 today, May 31st, but we celebrated on Memorial Day with the fam. See the cell phone. He opened this first. It has no service, but does everything a real cell phone does if you keep it charged. He is obsessed with phones and keys and now he is obsessed with his phone. You should hear the scream when someone attempts to take it. Yikes.
Opening all his awesome gifts.
Lawson loving his cupcake.

He kept saying "Gray Gray Birthday, Yay"
We did a water/fish themed little party. Baby pool, slip and slide, and a wet soapy trampoline.


Lovely!!!

Gray eating goldfish and Swedish fish. Blake made his "big fish" that hung from the chandelier.
fishy cupcakes

Funny Gray things:

1. He calls Jeremy "Dadio" all the time.

2. He points to your nose and doesn't say nose, he say's "boogers" (no surprise he has three big brothers)

3. He says "hold you" all the time.

4. He is loves his lovie and cell phone.

5. He thinks all his brothers hung the moon, but especially Sam.

Copy Clown

This is Blake at his Kindergarten Circus. The funny thing about this is that I had no idea Blake's part in this circus. I even told my Dad "You can leave after Blake's part". He was the comedy relief during the whole thing. He would come out between each act and do something until the next act was ready. Their were about 15 acts. We were so proud of him and he was hilarious.
Shooting the water gun at all the kids.

This Never Happens!

I was so shocked that both of these boys fell asleep on the couch. It is like pulling teeth to get my boys to sleep anywhere but their own beds!!!

Happy Mother's Day

I love Mother's Day.  All Mom's do I am sure.  My Mom spoke at Free Chapel that day.  I didn't get to hear her, but I heard it was excellent.  It should be up on the website soon.  (www.freechapelaustin.com). We didn't celebrate until later that afternoon.  We went to The Oasis for dinner which is on the lake.  It was a little toasty and long, but fun.  Then we went to Shake's for dessert.  I love hanging with some of my favorite moms... my Mom, Kimberly, and Lindsey.  
Mama Don, Ty, Papa.  Papa looks warm!
Jerm and the boys.  Gray loves cheese dip.

***I did have some pictures of the whole family, but I just got BRACES recently and I am not loving the pics.  I feel like Drew Barrymore on Never Been Kissed when she thinks back about when she was high school.  Lovely!!

Gray the Superstar!!

Baby Birks

Baby Birkenstocks are my favorite Summer time shoe.  Blake, Sam, and Gray have all worn these shoes.  I love them.  They might be on their last go around, but we are going to wear them out.

Cousins

This is the most recent picture of all the boys and their cousins.  My Mom spoke on Mother's Day at Free Chapel and she wanted a picture to show of all the boys together. 

Tyler holding Micah, Sam, Jax, Blake, Lawson, Parker, and Gray

Funny Faces

Favorite Thing

Popsicles are some of our favorite things right now.  I buy a huge bag of them for 2.50.  The boys eat them every day after school.  Even though Sam and Gray aren't in school, they still eat them after Tyler and Blake get home.  Cheap snack, not the healthiest thing in the world, but cheap!

Poe or Self

I have to brag on Tyler for a minute. His class had to write a poem to enter into The Diverse Youth Anthology 2009. Hundreds of students entered the contest and his poem was one of the poems chosen to be published. We joke with him about already being a published author at 8 years old. He rolls his eyes.
Yesterday he had the chance to read his poem at the Austin International Poetry Festival. He did a great job.

Me and the Court

by Tyler Self

Down the court I shoot baskets.
When I dribble it feels so fun. I think the fun of basketball has just begun.

I use defense and jump a lot.
Very tiring, but it’s worth a shot.

In offense I am aggressive.
Like Michael Jordan, I want to be impressive.

Thump, Thump I dribble on the court.
I go to the basket and make a dunk.

Basketball and I will be friends forever.

I hope I can get just a little bit better.

It's Official

No more diapers for the Self crew. We have been buying diapers for a little over 8 years. Poor Gray doesn't turn 2 until May 31st, but I started potty training him about a month ago. I couldn't bare the thought of buying one more pack of diapers. For the past two weeks Gray wears big boy undies 24 hours a day. (I like the cold turkey approach) Yes, we still have an occasional accident, but overall he is doing great!!! I have thought about adding up how much money we have spent on diapers over the last 8 years or how many diapers we have actually used, but I am just not ready for that step. Right now I am happy diapers are not on my shopping list.

Totally Stole This

My best advise comes from my "Mom" friends, whether it is parenting, potty training, or recipes. I took this from my friend Mary and I am so glad I did. You can go to Sam's club and buy 14 pizza crusts from there snack bar area. I think it was around 17.00 for 14 large crust. Very inexpensive. We eat pizza almost every week, mostly frozen, but sometimes we order it. Anyway, this is so yummy and you can create your own. All the boys (that is including Jeremy)love pizza and now they help make it. The only issue was fitting them in my freezer. Yikes!! That was a workout. (They thaw out within minutes, so it is a pretty quick dinner to throw together.) Our first one was BBQ Pizza. So good!

Everyday

The boys love looking out our back windows at the golfers. It is funny because they will have a running commentary on how the golfers are doing.

Easter Morning

Sorry these first two or sort of backwards, but I am not sure how to fix it. Ty loving on Lawson.

Getting a picture of all these boys is almost impossible. What in the world is Sam doing?

We had an Easter Egg hunt for the boys and the cousins around 4:00 that afternoon. This is the whole crew for now. Wade and Kimberly will being adding another baby in July.

The Easter loot!

Having our first Easter at Free Chapel was awesome and so exciting.

Easter Baskets

We had to do Easter early this year, well only by two days, but I am so by the rules. We would have had to wake the boys up at 5 a.m. to do Easter baskets on Easter morning. Saturday morning was out because Jeremy was doing an outreach to the local bars until 3 a.m. on Friday night, so we did it on Friday. The boys are at such good ages for holidays. They love it. Waiting to come find their baskets! (We hide them in the house)

About to bust they are so excited!

Blake found his with the help of Gray!

Ty found his last, but that is because his was the hardest to find.

We love ring pops!! (Also, any other kind of candy)

Tomorrow is Easter and I am so excited to celebrate at Free Chapel for our first Easter. HE IS RISEN!!!

Mr. Smartie Pants

Fun

Blake, Tyler, and I went to a Birthday party on Sunday at Austin Park and Pizza. We had the best time. We played laser tag (I haven't played since youth group), ski ball, basketball, and go carts. Blake and I about to smoke everyone on the race track.

Tyler waiting to drive his race car. He lost his front tooth the night before. He is finally losing teeth. All of his friends teeth are long gone!!

Speaking of teeth, I hope Blake's teeth come in this straight when he loses those beautiful baby teeth.

Let me not forget, they both won glow in the dark mouth pieces. You can't see them too good here.

Gray, Blake, and Sam were having a rough afternoon one day, so I needed to change up the environment. We decided to play with Daddy's shaving cream. It changed the mood and helped me get through the rest of the day. Worth the mess!!



Tyler showing Sam and Gray a preschool website. He is a huge help. I love times when they are all playing like this together. I am sure Blake was outside since he would choose to live outside if he could.

Babysitting Micah

One day last week we (myself, Sam, and Gray) kept Micah so he could nap while Lindsey went grocery shopping. We loved it. Gray is obsessed with Micah. He wants to hold him all the time.

I love this picture.

Sam is a natural.